circle-info
Release Announcement: NSO 6.6 is here!
Check out the release highlights to see what's newarrow-up-right
search
NSO DevCenterTry NSO

README v3.24.5 2025-08-28

hashtag
Table of contents

1. General
   1.1 Extract the NED package
   1.2 Install the NED package
       1.2.1 Local install
       1.2.2 System install
   1.3 Configure the NED in NSO
2. Optional debug and trace setup
3. Dependencies
4. Sample device configuration
5. Built in live-status actions
6. Built in live-status show
7. Limitations
8. How to report NED issues and feature requests
9. How to rebuild a NED

hashtag
1. General

This document describes the f5-bigip NED.

  • This document describes the F5 Big-IP Network Element Driver (NED) for Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO).

  • The NED is a software component that enables NSO to manage F5 Big-IP devices, providing a set of actions and operations that can be performed on these devices.

  • The F5 Big-IP NED is designed as a generic SSH NED, which means it uses the TMSH CLI commands of the F5 Big-IP device under SSH management.

  • It will use REST API calls for operations that require it, allowing for more complex interactions with the device, but it does not rely on HTTPS for general configuration management and device interaction.

Additional README files bundled with this NED package

Common NED Features

Verified target systems

hashtag
1.1 Extract the NED package

It is assumed the NED package ncs-<NSO version>-f5-bigip-<NED version>.signed.bin has already been downloaded from software.cisco.com.

In this instruction the following example settings will be used:

  • NSO version: 6.0

  • NED version: 1.0.1

  • NED package downloaded to: /tmp/ned-package-store

  1. Extract the NED package and verify its signature:

  2. In case the signature can not be verified (for instance if no internet connection), do as below instead:

  3. The result of the extraction shall be a tar.gz file with the same name as the .bin file:

hashtag
1.2 Install the NED package

There are two alternative ways to install this NED package. Which one to use depends on how NSO itself is setup.

In the instructions below the following example settings will be used:

  • NSO version: 6.0

  • NED version: 1.0.1

  • NED download directory: /tmp/ned-package-store

  • NSO run time directory: ~/nso-lab-rundir

A prerequisite is to set the environment variable NSO_RUNDIR to point at the NSO run time directory:

hashtag
1.2.1 Local install

This section describes how to install a NED package on a locally installed NSO (see "NSO Local Install" in the NSO Installation guide).

It is assumed the NED package has been been unpacked to a tar.gz file as described in 1.1.

  1. Untar the tar.gz file. This creates a new sub-directory named: f5-bigip-<NED major digit>.<NED minor digit>:

  2. Install the NED into NSO, using the ncs-setup tool:

  3. Open a NSO CLI session and load the new NED package like below:

Alternatively the tar.gz file can be installed directly into NSO. Then skip steps 1 and 2 and do like below instead:

Set the environment variable NED_ROOT_DIR to point at the NSO NED package:

hashtag
1.2.2 System install

This section describes how to install a NED package on a system installed NSO (see "NSO System Install" in the NSO Installation Guide).

It is assumed the NED package has been been unpacked to a tar.gz file as described in 1.1.

  1. Do a NSO backup before installing the new NED package:

  2. Start a NSO CLI session and fetch the NED package:

  3. Install the NED package (add the argument replace-existing if a previous version has been loaded):

  4. Load the NED package

hashtag
1.3 Configure the NED in NSO

This section describes the steps for configuring a device instance using the newly installed NED package.

  • Start a NSO CLI session:

  • Enter configuration mode:

  • Configure a new authentication group (my-group) to be used for this device:

  • Configure a new device instance (example: dev-1):

hashtag
Extra Setup Warning

WARNING: Ensure localhost is resolvable and loopback addresses are defined.

  • Follow RFC 6761 section 6.3: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6761#section-6.3

  • /etc/hosts (or equivalent) should contain 127.0.0.1 and/or ::1 mapping to localhost, *.localhost, or localhost.*

hashtag
IMPORTANT

hashtag
1.3.1 F5-BIGIP NED is a generic SSH NED by design

  • This means the NED is using the TMSH CLI commands of F5 BIGIP device under SSH management

  • Therefore, please ensure the SSH port is available and configured for the main config section as exemplified below

  • HTTPS port may also be used in certain live status commands, but it is NOT used for general config management and device interaction.

hashtag
Example:

  • Assuming SSH is open on port 22 and HTTPS on 443:

  • Finally commit the configuration

  • Verify configuration, using a sync-from.

If the sync-from was not successful, check the NED configuration again.

hashtag
2. Optional debug and trace setup

It is often desirable to see details from when and how the NED interacts with the device(Example: troubleshooting)

This can be achieved by configuring NSO to generate a trace file for the NED. A trace file contains information about all interactions with the device. Messages sent and received as well as debug printouts, depending on the log level configured.

NSO creates one separate trace file for each device instance with tracing enabled. Stored in the following location:

$NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ned-f5-bigip-gen-1.0-<device name>.trace

Do as follows to enable tracing in one specific device instance in NSO:

  1. Start a NSO CLI session:

  2. Enter configuration mode:

  3. Enable trace raw:

    Alternatively, tracing can be enabled globally affecting all configured device instances:

  4. Configure the log level for printouts to the trace file:

    Alternatively the log level can be set globally affecting all configured device instances using this NED package.

The log level 'info' is used by default and the 'debug' level is the most verbose.

IMPORTANT: Tracing shall be used with caution. This feature does increase the number of IPC messages sent between the NED and NSO. In some cases this can affect the performance in NSO. Hence, tracing should normally be disabled in production systems.

An alternative method for generating printouts from the NED is to enable the Java logging mechanism. This makes the NED print log messages to common NSO Java log file.

$NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ncs-java-vm.log

Do as follows to enable Java logging in the NED

  1. Start a NSO CLI session:

  2. Enter configuration mode:

  3. Enable Java logging with level all from the NED package:

  4. Configure the NED to log to the Java logger

    Alternatively Java logging can be enabled globally affecting all configured device instances using this NED package.

IMPORTANT: Java logging does not use any IPC messages sent to NSO. Consequently, NSO performance is not affected. However, all log printouts from all log enabled devices are saved in one single file. This means that the usability is limited. Typically single device use cases etc.

SSHJ DEBUG LOGGING For issues related to the ssh connection it is often useful to enable full logging in the SSHJ ssh client. This will make SSHJ print additional log entries in $NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ncs-java-vm.log:

hashtag
3. Dependencies

This NED has the following host environment dependencies:

  • Java 1.8 (NSO version < 6.2)

  • Java 17 (NSO version >= 6.2)

  • Gnu Sed

Dependencies for NED recompile:

  • Apache Ant

  • Bash

  • Gnu Sort

  • Gnu awk

  • Grep

  • Python3 (with packages: re, sys, getopt, subprocess, argparse, os, glob)

hashtag
4. Sample device configuration

hashtag
Sample Configuration Workflow

hashtag
4.1. Enter device config mode & create object

hashtag
4.2. Preview (dry-run) native commands

hashtag
4.3. Commit the transaction

hashtag
4.4. Check sync status

hashtag
4.5. Compare configuration

Note: If no diff is shown, supported config is the same in NSO as on the device.

hashtag
5. Built in live-status actions

The NED provides comprehensive support for native F5 exec commands through the device live-status interface. These actions allow you to execute various F5 Big-IP operations directly from NSO, outside the NSO config tree. Please use them cautiously as they can impact and potentially change device behavior or existing configuration in some cases. If configuration changes as a result of a live-status command, a sync-from command may be required to reconcile the device state with NSO.

hashtag
Available Actions Overview

hashtag
5.1 Generic Command Execution

hashtag
5.1.1 any Action - TMSH Commands

  • Execute any tmsh commands on the device.

Single Command Examples:

Multiple Commands: Separate commands with ; (space-semicolon-space).

Example Output:

hashtag
5.1.2 any-outside-tmsh Action - Exec Commands

  • Execute any exec commands outside tmsh mode.

Examples:

hashtag
5.1.3 show Action - Show Commands

  • Execute show commands with structured output.

Single Command:

Output:

Multiple Commands:

hashtag
5.2 File Operations

hashtag
5.2.1 Upload File

  • Transfer files from NSO to the F5 device.

hashtag
5.2.2 Download File

  • Transfer files from the F5 device to NSO.

hashtag
5.2.3 Delete File

  • Remove files from the F5 device.

hashtag
5.3 Certificate Management

hashtag
5.3.1 Install Certificate

  • Install SSL certificates on the device.

hashtag
5.4 ASM Policy Management

hashtag
5.4.1 Upload Policy

  • Upload ASM security policy files.

hashtag
5.4.2 Get Policies

  • List all available ASM policies.

Output:

hashtag
5.4.3 Apply Policy

  • Apply an ASM policy to the system.

hashtag
5.4.4 Import Policy

  • Import ASM policy from file.

hashtag
5.4.5 Export Policy

  • Export ASM policy to file.

hashtag
5.4.6 Download Policy

  • Download exported ASM policy file.

hashtag
5.5 Advanced Interactive Commands

hashtag
5.5.1 outside-tmsh-prompts - Interactive Commands

  • Execute commands that require interactive input/prompts.

Example: Change Root Password

hashtag
5.5.2 exec-rest-call - REST API Calls

  • Execute REST API calls directly against the F5 device.

Prerequisites:

  • REST credentials must be configured (see section 7.2)

  • Hostname verification may need to be disabled (see section 7.16)

hashtag
5.5.3 outside-tmsh-cmds - Duplicated Commands

  • Send multiple commands with unique keys for complex operations.

Example: Configure BGP in IMISH Mode

Note: The key values are for uniqueness only and are not sent to the device.

hashtag
5.6 Success Indicators

Most actions return a result successful message upon completion. Monitor NSO logs for detailed execution information and error messages.

hashtag
6. Built in live-status show

hashtag
6.1 Live Status: show sys version

  • Command issued from NSO:

  • Device interaction (command executed on device):

Output is representative; version/build will differ per device.

hashtag
7. Limitations

hashtag
7.1 ltm / rule *

  • Rules in a subdirectory i.e. RuleDir/aRule are not shown in NSO.

  • This is because the F5 BIG-IP device doesn't list those rules when executing list ltm rule in tmsh.

hashtag
7.2 net / self / * / allow-service all

  • Issuing modify net self * { allow-service all } on the device will automatically replace all previous values of allow-service with all. This automatic replacement is not supported in the NED. Instead, first delete all the existing allow-service values and then add all.

Example (set to all):

  • If you want to add other values to allow-service when the value is all then first delete the all value and then add the other values.

Example (replace with specific services):

hashtag
7.3 net / vlan *

  • When creating a new /net/vlan object the device could automatically add the VLAN's name in /net/stp/vlans and /net/route-domain/vlans. To avoid a compare-config diff the VLAN's name must be added to /net/stp/vlans and /net/route-domain/vlans from the NED as well.

  • When deleting a /net/vlan object the device could automatically delete the VLAN's name from /net/stp/vlans and /net/route-domain/vlans. To avoid a compare-config diff the VLAN's name must be deleted from those lists by the NED as well.

Example 1 (add):

Example 2 (delete):

hashtag
7.4 Custom NED-setting file-download-buffer-size

  • When downloading a file through the live-status call:

Details:

  • Default buffer size is 1 if the NED-setting file-download-buffer-size has not been set (slowest but most reliable for md5sum).

  • Set buffer size:

  • Larger values increase speed but also probability of md5 mismatch. NED retries up to 5 times.

  • Testing suggests values >32 significantly raise risk of re-downloads.

hashtag
7.5 compare-config diffs on sys snmp users -password

  • The values below can only be set on the device, not listed:

    • sys snmp users * auth-password

    • sys snmp users * privacy-password

So if you configure these values from the NED there will be a compare-config diff.

  • The values below can both be set and listed on the device:

    • sys snmp users * auth-password-encrypted

    • sys snmp users * privacy-password-encrypted

    However, every time you list these values they will change. This will lead to a compare-config diff.

    These compare-config diffs are handled in NSO 4.4 and above. For versions below 4.4 a sync-from is recommended to solve the compare-config diffs.

hashtag
7.6 Encrypted-password rollback

  • The configuration /sys/snmp/users have two values which return different values every time they are listed.

    • /sys/snmp/users/auth-password-encrypted

    • /sys/snmp/users/privacy-password-encrypted

  • When doing a rollback from the deletion of a /sys/snmp/user that

    • /sys/snmp/user/ will be created created by the NED.

    • The NED will send the creation command such as:

    • Sometime the device will accept the roll-back command and the deletion roll-back is successful.

    • Other times the device interprets random space and backspace characters. In that case the rollback fails.

      • When that happens the error message below will be printed: Rollback failed. See README "Encrypted-password rollback" for details: edit error

      • This is a known issue and happens sporadically on the device side.

hashtag
7.7 Auto-config handling

  • Auto-config occurs when the device automatically creates/modifies/deletes configuration. This usually leads to a compare-config issue. One way to solve it is to create/modify/delete the corresponding config in same transaction/commit.

    Example 1 - compare-config issue due to auto-config:

    Example 2 - creating the corresponding auto-config on the NED solves the compare-config issue

hashtag
7.8.1 Device discovery in /cm/trust-domain

  • Devices can be added to /cm/trust-domain in two ways.

    • One way is to add a device in /cm/device, then add that device in /cm/trust-domain. This is the only way supported by the NED.

    • Another way is to specify a /cm/trust-domain device by IP:

      modify /cm trust-domain <trust-domain-name> ca-devices add { <ip> } name <name> ...

      • The Big-ip device then performs device discovery with that IP, and this new device is added under /cm/device, and other configuration nodes are modified out-of-band as well.

      • In other words, using device discovery in /cm/trust-domain causes auto-config. If the device discovery syntax were to be implemented, user would still have to configure the resulting auto-config, i.e. in the way that's already supported, hence such an implementation would be superfluous.

      • If user still wants to use device discovery, live-status can be used.

hashtag
7.8.2 False 'in-sync' result when check-sync after device discovery

  • The NED uses a hash of configsync.localconfigtime to determine if CDB is in sync with a device. However, the configsync.localconfigtime value doesn't change after device discovery (as described in section 8.1), which leads to check-sync reporting "in-sync" after device discovery, even though compare-config would report a diff.

hashtag
7.9 sys crypto crl / sys file ssl-crl

hashtag
7.9.1. Provided that the crl is stored in the device, issue an install command from the NED to install the crl test-crl.pem

Example:

hashtag
7.9.2 Issue a sync-from to fetch the configuration for:

Example:

hashtag
7.9.3 Delete both sys crypto crl test-1 & sys file ssl-crl test-1 from the NED

Example command:

  • The NED will only send delete /sys file ssl-crl "test-1" { }

    since both sys crypto crl test-1 & sys file ssl-crl test-1 will be deleted by the device once it receives delete /sys file ssl-crl "test-1" { }

hashtag
7.10 Creating /ltm rule

  • Use semicolon ; for separating lines.

  • Escape special characters and escape sequences (e.g. ", $, \n, \r becomes \", \\$, \\n, \\r).

  • Multiline mode works for some NSO versions (e.g. 4.7.4, 5.2.0.3). If using a version where it does not work correctly, default back to escaping and sending it on one line as shown in example 2 below.

hashtag
7.10.1. Example: unescaped ltm rule and output:

Example command:

  • will yield this on the device:

hashtag
7.10.2. Example: escaped ltm rule and output:

Example command:

hashtag
7.11 Port representation - alphabetical or numerical

  • The device can represent ports numerically or alphabetically (e.g. 443 or https).

    • If there is a representation mismatch between the NED and the device a compare-config diff will appear.

    • To solve it, the representation must be same in both the NED and the device.

    • The below config can configure the port representation:

      • 1. sys db bigpipe.displayservicenames value true | false

      • 2. cli global-settings service name | number

      Updating pt 1. will automatically update 2. and vice versa.

Example: Configure the device to show numerical port values

hashtag
7.12 Writing and reading to all partitions with one device instance

hashtag
7.12.1. To enable the reading of all partitions:

  • See README-ned-settings.md Fetching config from all partitions:

  • It may also be necessary to exclude specific paths from getting the partition name as a prefix.

hashtag
7.12.2. Writing to other partitions beside the standard partition /Common:

  • To create/modify/delete config which resides in a partition other than the standard partition /Common, the partition name needs to be added before the config name. To be consistent, when working with several partitions with one device instance always specify the partition name before the config name.

Example:

hashtag
7.12.3. The below config has been tested to be created/modified/deleted on a partition beside the /Common partition on the NED:

Nodes:

hashtag
7.13 ned-id change

  • From NED version 3.6, we have changed ned-id from bigip:f5-bigip to bigip-id:f5-bigip, due to NEDCOM internal dependencies for this change. NED will upgrade existing device ned-id's to new ned-ids during package upgrade.

    • However to add new device, user need to use new ned-id bigip-id:f5-bigip.

    XML example:

hashtag
7.14 Configuring ltm/profile/http/encrypt-cookies

  • From NED version 3.8, the modelling for this leaf is changed.

  • To configure this leaf, the keyword "cookie" is required between encrypt-cookies and the cookie name.

  • To configure the leaf in version 3.8 and onwards, use the below syntax: ncs# devices device <bigip-device> config ltm profile http <http-name> encrypt-cookies cookie <cookie-name>

hashtag
7.15 Removal of set-hooks

  • The following set-hooks has been removed:

hashtag
7.15.1. /ltm/virtual/destination -> tailf:callpoint ltm-virtual-mask-hook { tailf:set-hook node; }

  • The difference now is that if /ltm/virtual/destination is set then /ltm/virtual/mask needs to be set as well, if needed.

hashtag
7.15.2 /ltm/virtual/ip-protocol -> tailf:callpoint ltm-virtual-hook { tailf:transaction-hook node; }

  • The difference now is that if

    is set then

    needs to be set as well, if needed.

hashtag
7.16 net/* and security/firewall/* mirroring auto config

  • Some lists in these nodes have a mirroring style of auto config.

  • In devices which have this present, the workaround to not get out of sync with the device is to use the ned-setting "exclude-load-config", see README-ned-settings.md under exclude-load-config for details

Example:

hashtag
7.17 Deleting net/fdb and subnodes

Dynamic behavior

  • The NED will not issue a delete command for net/fdb, since it is not possible on the device.

    • Since the subnode net/fdb/records can store a reference to net/vlan/interface, it has to be possible to delete this reference to enable the deletion of that net/vlan.

      • This is why the NED will do a check each time a delete net fdb vlan X is issued. If X has an instance of records, the command belpw will be sent to the device:

        • modify /net fdb vlan X { records none }

hashtag
7.18 Enabling and using the IMI shell (imish)

  • Configuring the device using imish can be enabled with the ned-setting

    ned-settings f5-bigip imish use-imish

  • After this has been set to 'true', user should do a sync-from. At this point, user can start using configuration under imish.

  • Note that by enabling the config under /imish the following config sections will be disabled on the NED:

  • The NED uses run /util imish -r <id> to enter imish. The id corresponds to a /net/route-domain with dynamic routing enabled, i.e. with /net/route-domain/routing-protocol containing the value "BGP", and the config entered when that id was specified "belongs" to that id. Therefore, imish is modeled as a Yang list.

  • When enabling dynamic routing in a /net/route-domain, user must also create an imish instance corresponding to the id of that route-domain.

    • For example, suppose we have already configured a /net/route-domain with id 1. Then when we want to enable dynamic routing, we must also create imish 1:

    • The imish instance is created in the CDB but is not sent to device, since it's not actual config.

    • Conversely, when disabling dynamic routing for a /net/route-domain, the corresponding imish instance must also be deleted.

    • If this is not done, there will be a config diff.

  • When enabling dynamic routing and configuring imish in the same transaction (commit), device may complain that Protocol daemon is not running, and imish config is not accepted.

    To avoid this, a delay may be necessary.

    This delay can be controlled with the ned-setting: ned-settings f5-bigip imish delay-before-imish

    • NOTE: To not be confused with delay-before-send; different scopes!

    • By default this value is 10000 milliseconds (10 seconds).

hashtag
7.19 Configuring cm/device/unicast-address

  • Following the device's listing order for configuring /cm/device/unicast-address keys from the ned is required.

    The listing order for /cm/device/unicast-address keys are:

    • 1. effective-ip

    • 2. effective-port

    • 3. ip

    • 4. port

    Example:

    • Not configuring according to device listing order will yield out-of-syncs.

    • The device will automatically configure some of the values depending on which ones are included and excluded. This is the table as it is currently known:

      Example:

      • If sent from the NED the above example will result in out-of-sync.

hashtag
8. How to report NED issues and feature requests

Issues like bugs and errors shall always be reported to the Cisco NSO NED team through the Cisco Support channel:

The following information is required for the Cisco NSO NED team to be able to investigate an issue:

Do as follows to gather the necessary information needed for your device, here named 'dev-1':

  1. Enable full debug logging in the NED

  2. Configure the NSO to generate a raw trace file from the NED

  3. If the NED already had trace enabled, clear it in order to submit only relevant information

    Do as follows for NSO 6.4 or newer:

    Do as follows for older NSO versions:

  4. Run a compare-config to populate the trace with initial device config

  5. Reproduce the found issue using ncs_cli or your NSO service. Write down each necessary step in a reproduction report.

  6. Gather the reproduction report and a copy of the raw trace file containing data recorded when the issue happened.

  7. Contact the Cisco support and request to open a case. Provide the gathered files together with access details for a device that can be used by the Cisco NSO NED when investigating the issue.

Requests for new features and extensions of the NED are handled by the Cisco NSO NED team when applicable. Such requests shall also go through the Cisco support channel.

The following information is required for feature requests and extensions:

  1. A detailed use case description, with details like:

    • Data of interest

    • The kind of operations to be used on the data. Like: 'read', 'create', 'update', 'delete' and the order of the operation

    • Device APIs involved in the operations (For example: REST URLs and payloads)

    • Device documentation describing the operations involved

  2. Run sync-from # devices device dev-1 sync-from (if relevant)

  3. Attach the raw trace to the ticket (if relevant)

  4. Access to a device that can be used by the Cisco NSO NED team for testing and verification of the new feature. This usually means that both read and write permissions are required. Pseudo access via tools like Webex, Zoom etc is not acceptable. However, it is ok with access through VPNs, jump servers etc.

hashtag
9. How to rebuild a NED

To rebuild the NED do as follows:

When the NED has been successfully rebuilt, it is necessary to reload the package into NSO.

PreviousREADME-ned-settingsNextfireeye-cms

Last updated

Was this helpful?